Table 1. Relationship between PNI and clinicopathological characteristics of ESCC patients.

Characteristics	n	PNI			P value
		PNI-0 (149)	PNI-a (54)	PNI-b (99)
Age					0.722
<59	162	79 (48.77%)	27 (16.67%)	56 (34.57%)
≥ 59	140	70 (50.00%)	27 (19.29%)	43 (30.71%)
Gender					0.386
Male	233	110 (47.21%)	44 (18.88%)	79 (33.91%)
Female	69	39 (56.52%)	10 (14.49%)	20 (28.99%)
Pain					0.778
Negative	224	112 (50.00%)	38 (15.57%)	74 (33.04%)
Positive	78	37 (47.44%)	16 (20.51%)	25 (32.05%)
Location					0.840
Upper	50	25 (50.00%)	10 (20.00%)	15 (30.00%)
Middle	146	76 (52.05%)	24 (16.44%)	46 (31.51%)
Lower	106	48 (45.28%)	20 (18.87%)	38 (35.85%)
Tumor size					0.646
≤3 cm	113	58 (51.33%)	22 (19.47%)	33 (29.20%)
3–5 cm	108	56 (51.85%)	17 (15.74%)	35 (32.41%)
≥ 5 cm	81	35 (43.21%)	15 (18.52%)	31 (38.27%)
Differentiation					0.232
Well	153	75 (49.02%)	27 (17.65%)	51 (33.33%)
Moderate	114	56 (49.12%)	25 (21.93%)	33 (28.95%)
Poor	35	18 (51.43%)	2 (5.71%)	15 (42.86%)
Tumor depth					0.001
T1	49	36 (73.47%)	7 (14.29%)	6 (12.24%)
T2	97	49 (50.52%)	18 (18.56%)	30 (30.93%)
T3 + T4	156	64 (41.03%)	29 (18.59%)	63 (40.38%)
Lymph node metastasis					0.089
N0	165	92 (55.76%)	29 (17.58%)	44 (26.67%)
N1	101	43 (42.57%)	20 (19.80%)	38 (37.62%)
N2	20	10 (50.00%)	2 (10.00%)	8 (40.00%)
N3	16	4 (25.00%)	3 (18.75%)	9 (56.25%)
Tumor stage					0.010
I	86	52 (60.47%)	14 (16.28%)	20 (23.26%)
II	120	61 (50.83%)	24 (20.00%)	35 (29.17%)
III	96	36 (37.50%)	16 (16.67%)	44 (45.83%)
Vascular invasion					0.000
Negative	176	121 (68.75%)	23 (13.07%)	32 (18.18%)
Positive	126	28 (22.22%)	31 (24.60%)	67 (53.17%)